STAR NFL QUARTERBACK TROY AIKMAN: Football Has Gotten So Dangerous I Wouldn't Even Let My Kid Play The Game

Sorry, Jerry. Your sport
makes you millions, but it also maims and cripples people. Time
to do something about it.AP

Legendary NFL quarterback Troy Aikman is so alarmed by how
violent and dangerous pro football has become that he's speaking
out on the issue.

According to the transcript below, Aikman recently told Bryant
Gumbel, the host of HBO's Real Sports, that if he had a 10-year
old son he might not even let him play the game because of the
injury risk.

The NFL is quietly taking baby steps toward addressing this
problem, but with stars like Aikman speaking out, the league may
soon be forced to do something radical. (As it should).

Aikman himself thinks the NFL should go back to leather helmets,
so players are less inclined to use their heads as weapons.
Aikman also thinks the idea of moving to an 18-game season to
further boost NFL revenue is insane--16 games are hard enough on
the players as it is.

Aikman: "I think that we're at a real
crossroads, as it relates to the grassroots of our sport, because
if I had a 10-year-old boy, I don't know that I'd be real
inclined to encourage him to go play football, in light of what
we are learning from head injury. And so what is the
sport gonna look like 20 years from now?

Gumbel: "It would seem that -- that they're trying to be -- they
being league officials, rules officials, are trying to be
half-pregnant. They want to have the violence that is attractive
to a lot of fans, but they don't want anybody to get hurt doing
it."

Aikman: "The only way you're
gonna eliminate helmet to helmet-- contact is to take the helmets
off. Go back to leather helmets. I mean, I think-- a
defensive player would be much less inclined to lead with his
head, if he had no protection."

Gumbel:"I said take the face-masks off. Seriously. I mean, guys
would not lead--

Aikman:: "I agree."

Gumbel: "With their face-- with their head when you have-- when
their-- when their grill is exposed.

Aikman: "As the equipment has gotten
better, and it's gotten better in an attempt to try to protect
the player more, then the equipment becomes used more as a
weapon."

And the coming 18-game season:

Aikman: "When you stand and talk about
player safety, and then at the same time, you want to extend the
season two more games, there's a contradiction in there."

Gumbel: That's hypocritical?

Aikman: "I think-- that it is. I would
never have wanted to play 18 games as a player. It's too much.
It's hard for players to make it through 16 games. I'm not naive.
I know why it's being done. So do the players. But it's not being
done because anyone thinks it's best for the game of football.
It's being done to increase revenue. It's real simple."

Gumbel: "Would play be diminished?

Aikman: "I think it would be. I'm
concerned right now overall with-- the long-term viability of our
sport. And-- I'm worried that we may be looking back on
this period of greed-- at some point in time and saying, 'Wow,
those were maybe some of the missteps that the NFL took, that led
to their demise or led to them being overtaken by' whether it's
baseball or basketball or some other sport."